Maria Alejandra Vargas, lecturer on criminal law and coordinator of the Postgraduate in Compliance and Cybersecurity at UIC Barcelona, spoke at the Master’s Degree in Criminal Law interuniversity seminar held at the University of Salamanca.

Her talk, titled: "Crimes committed by legal persons. A reflection on numerus clausus and the specific criminal offence system", consisted of a critical analysis of the decision taken by Spanish lawmakers to introduce criminal liability for legal persons in 2010. The decision was taken to limit corporate criminal liability to a closed list of crimes.

Accordingly, Vargas reflected on the reasons why lawmakers backed a numerus clausus system, analysing the specific crimes that may be committed by legal persons in Spain. In addition, she compared the status of the issue in legislation in other countries, and suggested some limiting criteria in accordance with the nature and objectives of this new liability.

The experts who spoke at the seminar came from UIC Barcelona, like Vargas, and of course, from the University of Salamanca, whose representatives were the Chair of Criminal Law Laura Zúñiga Rodríguez and Doctor of Criminal Law and lecturer at the Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Brazil, Rodrigo José Fuziger, who is also a doctoral candidate at the University of Salamanca. The Pontifical Xavierian University also participated via an online connection during the seminar.